The Swarm 



[20] 



Why do they thus renounce sleep, the 

 delights of honey and love, and the ex- 

 quisite leisure enjoyed, for instance, by 

 their winged brother, the butterfly ? 

 Why will they not live as he lives ? 

 It is not hunger that urges them on. 

 Two or three flowers suffice for their 

 nourishment, and in one hour they will 

 visit two or three hundred, to collect a 

 treasure whose sweetness they never will 

 taste. Why all this toil and distress, and 

 whence comes this mighty assurance ? Is 

 it so certain, then, that the new generation 

 whereunto you offer your lives will merit 

 the sacrifice ; will be more beautiful, hap- 

 pier, will do something you have not 

 done ? Your aim is clear to us, clearer 

 far than our own ; you desire to live, 

 as long as the world itself, in those that 

 come after ; but what can the aim be 

 69 



